A look at the events of Dave's world, updated as circumstances warrant

Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Proud Papa Update - Henley, Day Two

Another beautiful day in southern Ontario, and another good day for Jaime on the water. For Kelly, it was another disappointment, as she just missed out on qualifying her single for the final.

Jaime, on the other hand, placed second in her single semi, and finished in a near photo-finish with two other boats to go through to the final in her double.

Rowers often say there's nothing tougher than rowing in a race where only the top two boats advance. It's OK if you're one of these two, but for the other four, there's only disappointment. That was the case for Kelly today, as only the two fastest boats in each of the three semi-finals advanced to the final.

Kelly hadn't rowed her single all summer, choosing instead to focus on the four and eights as a sweeper. And at Leander this year, mixing sculling (with two oars) and sweeping (with a single oar) wasn't allowed. So she decided not to row her single.

A couple of weeks ago, with injuries to some of the other girls making her chances in the eight look less good, Kelly decided to enter a single in the Henley. But she still didn't get too much opportunity to practice in it. So today, when she needed to be at her best, her start was not that good, and she ended up dead last at the 500 metre mark. Although she dug in and raced the remaining 1,500 metres like crazy, she just couldn't quite make it to second and a spot in the final. But she certainly didn't leave anything on the course.

So Thursday, we're excited about Jaime's two races. She's up against all the familiar competition and she's defnitely in the running to medal.

Oh, and in case you're wondering why Kelly finished third but didn't advance, while Jaime finished third and did advance -- it's a simple numbers game. There are so many more heavyweights competing than lightweights that they end up with a lot more heats, but only two from each qualify for the semis. Then they end up with three semi-finals, instead of two. And if you can only end up with six boats in the final, you can only take two boats from each semi. So the numbers just work out that way for Kelly this year.

And of course, the rowing isn't over tomorrow. Kelly has the eight heats on Friday, semis on Saturday and finals on Sunday. And Jaime is racing the lightweight eight on Saturday (It's a straight final, without any heats, again because there are only a few boats entered.)

So here's the updated schedule. Jaime's races are both later in the day on Thursday. I'm not sure of the time, but you can find it on the Henley regatta website.

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